The new grant funds the Edith Kinney Gaylord News Innovation Initiative at the Cronkite School. The program will serve as the innovation hub for Cronkite News at Arizona PBS, a multiplatform daily news division operated by the Cronkite School with 15 full-time editor/professors and more than 120 ASU students who produce daily news content on TV and digital platforms for Arizona audiences.

The Social Media Impact (#SMING14) survey conducted by ING among an international group of journalists and PR professionals shows that dialogue on social media is gaining importance. Journalists widely use social media posts despite having doubts about their reliability. At the same time PR professionals believe that news is becoming less reliable as journalists do less fact-checking.

The ING survey also revealed that a majority of journalists feel less bound by journalistic rules on social media. Social media are increasingly being used as a means of engaging in dialogue, although Dutch PR professionals lag behind their international peers in this respect.

Leaked report admits the iconic news organization is falling behind because it has not embraced the potential of digital platforms.

One of the world’s most venerable news organizations is conducting some serious self-evaluation, according to a report that was recently made public on an industry website. The 96-page report, which was leaked and published online, was written by ten NYT senior staff members, who say: [Read more…]

A record 46 recipients of the University of Georgia’s 73rd Annual Peabody Awards were announced today on CBS This Morning and www.peabodyawards.com. The winners, chosen by the Peabody board from almost 1,100 entries, comprise the best in electronic media for the year 2013.

The latest Peabody recipients include a pair of high-profile political melodramas, Netflix’s corrosive House of Cards and ABC’s juicy Scandal; A Chef’s Life, a stereotype-cracking nonfiction serial about a farm-to-fork North Carolina restaurant; Burka Avenger, an animated Pakistani series aimed at empowering girls; A Needed Response, a YouTube viral video created by two University of Oregon students that succinctly criticizes rape culture and champions r-e-s-p-e-c-t for women; and two distinctive probes of the dangers of brain injury in professional football, FRONTLINE’s League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis and ESPN’s Outside the Lines: NFL at a Crossroads: Investigating a Health Crisis.

News agencies continue to have an edge over Twitter in being first with the news, a new study shows. Research into reporting of news events by Twitter and newswire services has found that while Twitter can sometimes break news before newswires, for major events there is little evidence that it can replace traditional news outlets.

Twitter’s main benefits for news are bringing additional coverage of events, and for sharing news items of interest to niche audiences or with a short lifespan, such as local sports results.

On both Twitter and Facebook, the conversation was much more critical of Mitt Romney than it was of Barack Obama. And when the criticism of one candidate and praise of another are combined, the conversation on Twitter leaned Obama’s way. On Facebook it was something of a draw.

In this partnership, Facebook and CNN are teaming up to take the pulse of the American electorate and amplify the voices of the social site’s users as they share their thoughts and feelings on candidates and critical issues facing the country ahead of Election Day. This innovative multi-platform partnership will include:

Earlier this year I conducted a study of Phoenix-area journalists regarding social media; among the findings was the heavy use of Facebook for information-gatering, searching for images and identifying potential sources for interviews. Facebook Journalist Program Managers Vadim Lavrusik and Betsy Cameron recently conducted a study looking at how people were engaging with Journalist Pages on Facebook, revealing more detailed insight into how journalists use Facebook to communicate.

“We hope that the findings, which focus on post dynamics, engagement and activity, will provide journalists with some best practices and insights on optimizing their engagement and distribution on Facebook to better reach their audiences,” they wrote in the blog sharing the results of that study. “We’ve also conducted research on how users are engaging with news organizations on Facebook and will be releasing the findings in the coming weeks. We hope that this serves as guide, but also a spark, for conversations about best practices in using Facebook as a journalist.”

Facebook Study Highlights:

Starting the conversation: Posts that include a question or call to action from the journalist received the highest amount of feedback.

Personal analysis is effective: Posts that included the journalist’s analysis and personal reflections had 20% more referral clicks than that of an average post.

Images work: Photos received 50% more likes than non-photo posts, and journalists who shared links that included a thumbnail image in the link preview received 65% more likes and 50% more comments than posts that did not include images.

Recommendations

“Joe is one of the best PR professionals in the business. He knows just what to do, who to call, and how to make things happen. His ability to connect and be on point is one of the traits that differentiates him from others. Joe’s creativity combined with his empathy and intelligence make him one of a kind.”